National Futures Association distributes more than $700,000 in restitution payments to defrauded investors

March 20, Chicago - National Futures Association (NFA) announced today that it has returned more than $700,000 to 51 investors as part of a consent order issued on September 11, 2003, against two individuals and the four companies they owned. The case was filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The court order is a result of a complaint the CFTC filed on June 10, 2002, against Daniel Fasciana and Anthony Russo, along with the four companies they owned: Offshore Financial Consultants (Florida and Georgia), Global Financial Consultants and International Currency Merchants. The complaint charged the defendants with fraudulently soliciting customers to purchase illegal off-exchange foreign currency (forex) options. After receiving customer funds, the defendants stole those funds and used them for business and personal expenses.

"With this distribution of restitution funds, 51 investors will receive approximately 87% of their losses," says NFA President Dan Roth.

In the last 10 years, NFA has distributed more than $12.5 million to over 7,000 investors. NFA's program usually applies to judgments awarded in cases brought by the CFTC involving commodity fraud. As part of the resolution of the case, NFA is named to administer the restitution process.

"Under normal circumstances, court-appointed receivers administer the return of money to harmed investors and charge their fees to the cases, reducing the amount available for distribution," says Roth. "Because NFA does not charge any fees for administering the restitution service, we are able to return as much money as possible to the victims."